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THE TERRITORIAL ARISTOCRACY OF ENGLAND.

WE publish to-day the true Libro d'Oro of England, a nominal roll of every man in England and Wales who possesses 5,000 acres in any one county, and belongs therefore to the Territorial Aristocracy, with the total acreage he pos- sesses in all England, and the rental that acreage yields, which is not always, it must be remembered, the rental coming to him. Much of it is only reversionary, and Sir John Ramsden, Sir Lawrence Palk, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Calthorpe, and many another, would be only too glad if they could pay annually to their bankers the rents which their successors will one day derive from the towns or cities built upon their lands. The rent-rolls, in fact, must be to a certain extent delusive, for apart from the great cause of error, the calculation of re-

railways and towns and wealth will roll his way at last, and to record the that the we venture prediction possessor

estate in 1925 will derive from it a clear rent-roll of £50,000 a year. The North Riding cannot always remain a despair even to financing Railway Engineers, and in this country, this buzzing hive of human beings, great acreage means potentially great wealth. It is not the proprietor of the Craven moors or of the sandy dunes round Brighton who feels inclined to sing, with the Poet Laureate, "Oh, the dreary, dreary moorland! oh, the barren, barren shore!" for pleasure-land yields better, very often, than either corn-field or pasture. And there is nothing on earth, we doubt if in the history of the world there ever has been anything, like the position of the Englishmen who own 20,000 acres and can extract from them even a pound an acre. Rich, secure, and treated with a deference that nothing but crime can disturb, civilisation may in one sense be said to exist for them, for it is for them, first of all, that its treasures are poured out. They can live lives of political strife, or intellec- teal excitement, or supreme personal luxury, at discretion, can know all men, collect all things ; and greatest boon of all, live absolutely their own lives, without reproach, or fear of society, or dread of coming change. Nobles in other ages have held as much in proportion, but their lives were threatened by Em- perors, by slaves, or by rivals, till existence was one long study of defensive arts. The English territorialist is as safe in his home as a king in his capital, and if he has no slaves, can secure service from agents, whose power as compared with that of slaves, is limitless ; can realise his will without effort, though his will, as the Hindoos say, be to purchase tigers' claws,- quite a common article of trade in London and Paris, just now, or even, we hear, as articles de luxe, a little passis.

This is not the time for essays on the good or the evil of such an order in the State, but we are unwilling to submit versionary interests as if they were actual interests, there are such a list to the envious without just one remark. There is burdens on estates like these which are sometimes very heavy. no evidence whatever that the system can be altered, either Those sources of error are unavoidable, nor will we absolutely gradually or suddenly, by means that a statesman or a moralist guarantee our readers from errors in our own calculation. would recommend. It could be altered by recurrent confisca- The very experienced indexer who has drawn out the roll tions,-that is, by abolishing the Eighth Commandment, be- confesses that the multitude of the statements, a multitude cause it made some men too comfortable. It could be altered almost inconceivable to those who have not attempted the by an impot progressif upon land,-that is, by a breach of the analysis, has sometimes bewildered him, and there may be cases national faith, which commands that taxation shall have in which a little outlying property has been missed. But we revenue, and not the pillage of a class, for its first end. And will guarantee that in no case has there been over-statement, it could be altered by an abolition of the freedom of bequest, and the total result is a most extraordinary one, and one that which would completely revolutionise the condition, not only would well justify any Club which interests itself in the repeal of English society, but of every family within it, and for of the Land Laws, in expending a few hundreds in a short but which the people, as a whole, are utterly unprepared. There thoroughly complete analysis of " Domesday Book." What- are no other methods of alteration. That realty should ever else is uncertain about the position of English landlords, this be declared personalty by statute is, we firmly believe,. one fact is certain :-Seven hundred and ten individuals own essential to the development of the country, whose more than a fourth of the soil of England and Wales, exclusive interests demand that every acre should at any time of lakes, roads, rivers, London, waste spaces, and Crown pro- be saleable, and we hope yet to see that revolution accom- perty, and within a fraction of a fourth of the entire geographical plished, but that revolution will not of itself divide great area of the country. And those 710 own also, immediately or properties. Men will still hunger, for distinction's sake, for in reversion, one-seventh of the entire rental of the kingdom, a them. They think-and they think accurately-that Mr. proportion which, if London could be included, would be very Bowes, of London, with £5,000 a year, and Mr. Bowes, of greatly increased. This is exclusive, be it remembered, of almost Streatham Castle, North Riding, with 48,000 acres, are totally all mineral property, which in 1873 was not rated to the poor. different entities in English eyes ; and they will buy the acres, Mr. Bright was undoubtedly wrong in believing that English- and keep the acres together, in secula seculorum, if they can ; men have been divorced from the soil, for a million heads of and from the day that realty becomes personalty, their power families are freeholders, 269,000 own more than an acre, and of doing so will be increased rather than diminished, though 43,000 possess more than 100 acres ; but he was as un- its exercise will demand rather more trouble, and rather more doubtedly right in believing that a most limited number of effort to discipline their children into contentment with in- gentlemen-less than the congregation of an ordinary West- equality. What is the use of concealing the truth ? No End chapel-of-ease-little more than half, for example, Mr. Christian civilisation can be organised which shall render great Haweis's audience on a full day; less by 300 than the Members fortunes impossible, or prevent successful efforts for their of Parliament in both Houses-wield still an enormous terri- transmission. Jacob Astor exists in New York, as well as the tonal and political influence. They own a fourth of the king- Duke of Westminster in London. All that honest politicians dom,-more, probably, than the same class possess in any can do is to abolish laws which artificially increase inequali- country in Europe, unless it be Hungary or Bohemia. The ties, rescue all dependents from political pressure, and in English Monasteries, when they were suppressed, had not a third, the case of land, support a tenure which shall admit of an and the nobles of France, many thousands in number when the agricultural middle-class. If the Seven Hundred are wise, Revolution broke out, had only one-twelfth more. And, be it they will support one too, for they may rely on it that it is not remembered, their acreage is not barren land, like the acreage of in their greatness, but in the way their greatness prevents all the Duke of Sutherland, or many other Scotch landlords. Scarcely beneath them from ripening, that their true danger consists. any derive less than a pound an acre a year from their estates, People do not cut down great trees because they exist, or be- and in the entire list we have found but one man who owns a cause they are seeking firewood, but because they are in the really grand acreage of desert. Mr. John B. Bowes, of way. The Duke of Northumberland, leading the people, and Streatham Castle, in the North Riding, has 48,887 acres regarded by his tenantry as their assurance-office, will no more in that Riding, yielding only £5,280 a year, besides, of be attacked for his possessions than John Nokes, who has course, other property elsewhere ; but even he, if he is made four millions by insuring cargoes. The envious as well wise, will cling to those acres of barren moorland, or as the curious may study our list curiously, but they may hill-side, or marsh, under all temptations, for the next rely on it that, as the world is, it is easier for them to enter half-century. Even if he has no minerals, population and it, than to brush it away.